IFA 2008: Philips Delivers Three New Home Theatre Systems

Apologies if these reports appear to have a breathless sense of urgency, but as alluded to earlier Philips has announced an indecently large amount of new products at IFA 2008.

Next on the agenda are home theatre systems, which include a small round all-in-one system called the Cinema One, a new sound bar featuring six discrete drivers and a sub-woofer, the Ambisound Soundbar HTS8140, and an unusual 5.1 speaker system claiming "virtual" 9.1 surround sound to be known as the HTS9810.
We'll start with the CinemaOne, though, and Philips clearly has high hopes for this entry-level home theatre system come home entertainment system. Inside its funky round casing are four discrete drivers, an integrated sub-woofer and a slot-loading 1080p upscaling DVD player. Philips' new and impressive sounding FullSound processing is on hand for improved sound quality without, so says Philips, introducing artificial distortion.
On top it also features an iPod dock and on the back an MP3 line-in, so this is as much a stereo as a home theatre system. There's also a USB port for playing videos from a removable disk and, bizarrely, a "stylish" bag for easy transportation - presumably for transporting it to a different room or a friend's house? Truth be told, we're bemused.

Audio codec support includes Dolby Digital, DTS, MP3, PCM and multi-channel MPEG2. Video codec support includes DivX from version 3.11 to 6.0 and Ultra - Xvid should work though it's not listed.

Unfortunately Philips was unable to confirm pricing, but suggested it would arrive in the UK early 2009 after launches in France and Germany later this year.